


Hesitation

by Blueberryshortcake



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Felix cameos, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 03:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14844428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueberryshortcake/pseuds/Blueberryshortcake
Summary: Two times Vanessa Kimball had Locus at her mercy.





	Hesitation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Draange](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Draange).



“You can play it one of two ways,” Felix said urgently. “You make it public, or you make it quiet.” **  
**

Kimball turned slowly. “I have Locus in one of my holding cells. That creature has killed countless Republic soldiers. He goes on trial and he–”

“You make him a martyr for the Feds,” Felix said. “Or you take him out quietly and we never have to fear the great Invisible Dread again. Think about it, Kimball.”

“You want me to just…”

“Let me take him out back and shoot him.” Felix cut her off, voice firm.

“Just like–”

“Yep, just like that.” His tone was light and easy, but there was a deep, dark, coldness that reminded Vanessa Felix was a killer for hire, and there was probably a reason for it.

“That isn’t…” She started slowly. “There’s no–”

“Sometimes it isn’t about personal satisfaction or morale boosts,” Felix said. “Sometimes, you take out the big scary target as quick and efficiently as you can. You wanna put him on trial? He’s not a citizen of this planet, and any trial you put on would be a show. You think he won’t be found guilty?”

“He IS guilty.”

“Then why the dance, Vanessa? Why bother?”

She sucked in a hard breath. “Because–…”

“Because it’s justice?” Felix chuckled, “No. What you want is to find him guilty so you can kill him, right? So you can drag it out and make him suffer.”

She hesitated.

“It isn’t a trial if the only possible outcome is guilty, Kimball.”

She scowled, “You’re the one suggesting we kill him without hesitation.”

“Yeah,” Felix replied. “I don’t need to justify it to myself. He’s a threat. He’ll kill more of your soldiers. Putting him on trial is… false morality. You’re better than that. Be a General, be THE General. You’re number one now, remember?”

She bit her lip hard under her helmet. Be THE General.

“I have to think about it–”

“Vanessa!”

“I have to think about it!” She repeated. “Give me until dawn.”

“I’ll give you until an hour before dawn, cause that’s the best time to shoot him if we’re going to shoot him.”

Kimball stalked off before Felix could say another word.

-

He heard the entrance door clang open. He waited. His armor was gone, but there was no problem. Not yet. He almost expected it to be Felix, but even Felix wouldn’t be so bold as to stomp down the hall.

And if he was, he would have also been ranting about carelessness. Locus mentally sighed. He was never going to hear the end of this once he was free. Even if it was Felix’s fault in the first place.

An armored soldier stood in front of his cell. Locus didn’t move, but he was alert. Too tall to be Felix in someone else’s armor.

“So you’re Locus.”

Her voice was soft, contemplative.

Angry.

She was trying to hide it though.

Considering the time of night there was only a handful of people she could be.

“Major Kimball.” He guessed. She was the new one. Felix had laughed about it.

‘She’s easy to play. Her name should be fiddle.’

“General Kimball now,” She replied coolly.

He grunted in acknowledgement. “Congratulations.”

She suddenly lashed out, striking the bars of his sell with her gun.

He didn’t flinch outwardly, but it did surprise him.

“You’ll understand when I say you can take your kudos and shove them up your ass.” She seethed.  

“Are you here to kill me, General?” He asked.

“I’m thinking about it,” She replied. She let her gun fall to her side.

“Let me know what you decide,” He said dryly.

“I want to know why I shouldn’t.” She said. “That’s why I’m here. Why should I spare you?”

“Do you want me to beg?” Perhaps Felix had chosen wrong. Not that a bloodthirsty General wouldn’t get things done, but she would steamroll over Doyle and there would be half an army left to deal with. Things needed to be kept in balance.

“No,” Kimball said, determined. “Why shouldn’t I kill you. Why you’ve… done what you’ve done. Is it really just to settle an old score? All those people you’ve murdered?”

“Is that what Felix told you?” He asked.

Felix’s decision to romanticize their backstories with partners turned rivals hadn’t been appealing, but he could see how the younger soldiers of the New Republic would eat it up.

“Yes.”

He hesitated. The woman had a grudge, and it was personal. She was emotional. He was probably blamed for the death of people she knew personally. He’d rather not fight her without armor. Felix said he had a plan to get him out of here, but that would be useless if a loose canon took him out first.

“Why do you want to know?” He asked. “You seem to have made up your mind already.”

“Maybe I haven’t,” She said. “Maybe I can be convinced.”

“If there’s a good enough reason?” Locus asked, raising his eyebrow. “War rarely has good enough reasons, General Kimball. If you plan to lead an army, you need to learn that.”

She shook angrily. “I’m not a murderer,” She said. “I am a soldier. I don’t kill people because they’re inconvenient. I don’t–I don’t shoot unarmed men in the night because they scare me.”

He felt uncertain now.

“That isn’t…” He began, but couldn’t find the words to finish his sentence.

“So, tell me, why shouldn’t I kill you, Locus?”

She was naive. Perhaps it would be Doyle that would steamroll over her. To even contemplate sparing him. What sort of strategy was that?

“If I were you, I would kill me,” He told her bluntly. “You are a General. You have seen what I can do. Your job is to eliminate the enemy by any means necessary.” He lied, “General Doyle wouldn’t hesitate.”

“I have no desire to be anything like that monster,” She hissed.

“Then you’ll lose,” He told her simply. Fanning the flames of her ire wasn’t a great strategy, but her outlook was unsettling. She reminded him of old ghosts like Siris.

“Do you want to die?”

“I’m not going to play your game,” He said. “No matter what I say, it will never be enough to appease your bloodlust.”

She slammed her gun into the bars again in frustration and  turned away, stomping back down the hall.

She wouldn’t last. She didn’t know what a soldier really was.

-

“Next time, I won’t hesitate. You were right,” She felt sick. Felix’s arm was broken. He had barely escaped alive. And the six soldiers she sent with him were dead.

“It wouldn’t have made a difference,” Felix shook his head. “Earlier or later he would have done the same thing. I underestimated him outside of armor… I’m sorry Vanessa.” He squeezed her shoulder with his good arm. “I failed, that’s on me.”

“I’ll take it out of your pay,” She replied miserably.

“We’ll get him next time,” Felix said, although he didn’t sound so sure. Maybe the attack had shaken him more than he let on. Until now everyone had seen Felix as Locus’ equal. This was a blow to morale in more ways than one, although only her and a handful of people knew that they had even had Locus… and most of those people were dead now.

“I should have shot him in the cell and been done with him,” She said. “I should never have… you were right. I wanted to kill him. I just wanted to justify it. Make myself feel better. It was selfish. The next maniac in my sights I’m shooting them.”

Felix laughed.

“Good plan.”

-

“You saved his life.”

The gentle tone didn’t suit the gun she had pointed at him. General–President Kimball stood very similarly to the new General of the New Republic he had met years ago.

He let his camo fall away. There was no point.

“Every weird flicker of light, I always think it’s some asshole in active camo.” She smirked to herself. “For once the paranoia pays off.”

“Agent Washington should be fine if it’s Dr. Grey.”

“That’s right, you knew each other. I’m sure she would love to get her hands on you.”

He couldn’t suppress a shudder. There were few things in the universe that caused him true dread, but the idea of a doctor with sharp implements cutting into his body brought up too many memories of his torture at the hands of the Covenant. Grey had always unsettled him. She was broken but too intelligent to crumple.

“I’m sure she would,” He said slowly. “But you have me here.”

“Yeah, I do,” Kimball said. “I promised myself next time I wouldn’t hesitate. Until now, I haven’t.”

She wasn’t in armor. It was almost a juxtapose of their first meeting… except he was still the one with the gun aimed at him.

“Until now,” He echoed.

“I’m not a soldier anymore. This isn’t war. This would be revenge… murder. I’m trying to decide if I can sleep with that.”

“You asked me once, why you shouldn’t kill me,” He said slowly.

“What?” She scoffed. “You have an answer for me now?”

“Your anger towards me is justified… I have done unspeakable things. Ending me now would be a just action.”

“You’re still not very good at talking your way out of a firing squad. I could try you for war crimes.”

“You could,” He agreed. “And I would be in a cell for the rest of my life, or dead. I don’t see an innocent verdict as likely.”

Kimball seemed to waver for a moment and he didn’t know why, but her hold was steady on her pistol.

“Saving Agent Washington doesn’t mean you’ve changed.”

“No,” He agreed. “It doesn’t make up for anything. And I owe him more than this, even putting aside the blood I’ve shed.”

“You want to make up for things?”

“I don’t know if making up is possible, but I do want help people. I can’t do that in a cell.”

“You don’t really have a choice right now.”

“The reason why you shouldn’t kill me, or lock me up,” He said. “Is that I can do more good alive and free.”

“No.”

“Then you’re going to kill me.”

“No,” She said. “You’re right. You’re a man that can get things done. But I’m not letting you wander the universe with an inflated sense of yourself. You work for me now.”

He didn’t know what to say. Surprise coursed through him.

“Well?” She prompted.

“You need a man like me?”

“Chorus’ war has ended,” She looked up at the sky, perhaps imagining the UNFC blockade above their heads. “But it isn’t safe yet. I don’t like you. I hate you. And I’m fairly sure that I could sleep at night knowing I put a bullet in your skull… but Chorus comes first. It always has. You help me rebuild the planet you tore apart, or, you go to jail.”

He looked at her. President Kimball wasn’t a young General anymore. And maybe it had been him that had been naive all those years ago.  

He held out his gun to her, and she took it.

“Alright, Madam President. I’ll follow you.”


End file.
